A few weeks ago this was shocking news to millions of people, but it’s fast becoming common knowledge. We watched as the scandal hit the mass market news and as outrage, mirth, blame and witty puns flew around the media in equal measure…

And still, after weeks, horsegate gallops on! It’s grim, it’s widespread – and it’s shining a light on the food industry and getting people thinking about what’s in their food.

Two years ago when hiSbe first started talking about the problems in our food system and the impact it’s having on people’s health, the environment, workers, farmers, communities and animal welfare, people looked at us blankly. When we talked about how the food industry urgently needs to become more ethical and sustainable some even chortled!

But since then we’ve watched the seeds of change grow around us and an explosion of action to tackle our broken food system… we’ve had Hugh’s Fish Fight, Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket and The People’s Supermarket showing people how inefficient and wasteful a food system dominated by massive producers and retailers is. We’ve seen so-called “green” organisations like the Soil Association, Greenpeace, Oxfam and WSPA get really good at reaching out and explaining the issues around food to people. We’ve watched the local food movement grow and thrive and the real food movement create a joined up network. We’ve followed Red Tractor and the NFU’s work on championing and labelling products that meet legislation on food standards. We’ve seen people like CIWF, Fairtrade UK and LEAF working to raise those standards. We’ve noticed a wave of more responsibleretailers and brands grow out of the demand for better food. We’ve watched dairy farmers fight back over unfair price fixing and communities fight back over supermarket dominance…

That’s all just in the last two years.

Most importantly, we see more and more people asking questions about their supermarket food and saying “no, this isn’t good enough…” Yes, we know cheap food isn’t chef-tastic but it should at the very least be safe, legal, honestly labelled and be what it says it is. That it NOT too much to ask, that is a very basic level of customer service that we expect. The responsibilty lies firmly at the feet of the supermarkets and big food brands to know what’s in their food and be honest about it instead of hiding the facts.

Some supermarkets are making efforts to change, but making lasting sustainable change in organisations of their size is like turning around an oil tanker – its a long, slow process. So in the meantime, we encourage everyone to be part of the solution by using their shopper power to make different choices.

We’re also starting a supermarket chain from scratch and doing things the hiSbe way – putting fairness and transparency at the heart of everything we do, and making better quality food more affordable. That’s how it Should be. Why? Because people are starting to wise up and realise that they can’t just blindly trust the supermarkets and big food brands to do what’s right. Our food system is broken, the evidence of it is all around us and better information means more people are making better informed everyday food choices. This funny little vid says it all…

Stock image from fotalia.co.uk

]]>http://hisbe.co.uk/hold-your-horses/feed/0Eating for success!http://hisbe.co.uk/eating-for-success/
http://hisbe.co.uk/eating-for-success/#commentsThu, 12 Jul 2012 13:38:43 +0000http://www.hisbe.co.uk/?p=2960Thanks to Dr. Chris Fenn for this blog. Chris is a nutritionist, author and speaker. Her motto is “eat for success” and she helps people to understand which foods help them achieve their goals and which ones actually hold them back.

Ask yourself “why do you eat?”

The textbook answer would be … to supply your body with energy giving nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibre. However, rarely do we think of food in these terms. It is more common to seek out food which tastes good.

Thousands of skilled and creative people are employed by the food manufacturing industry to invent cheap foods, which taste good. Grab and go crunchy snacks contain substances which stimulate the appetite centre so that consumers keep eating right to the bottom of the (once large, now supersized) bag. This sets up a pattern of hypersensitivity to food and eating becomes an event which is easily stimulated, but difficult to stop. A cycle of food temptation and dependence is then set up – and the cycle is hard to break.

Food manufacturers won’t help you, as their agenda is profit. The more stimulating and tasty they can design food, the more we will want to finish the whole packet – and come back for more. These types of foods are cheap and available, and hard to resist – especially if you are tired, bored, lonely, stressed or in need of a “treat” and use these foods to feed your emotions.

We also love a sweet taste, and so sugar is shovelled into many processed food. Sugar is a cheap ingredient, but the dreaded high fructose corn syrup is even cheaper. The use of this as a major ingredient in many processed foods (even baked beans and pasta sauces) adds to profit, increases shelf life, and feeds our love of sweet foods. However, the bolt of fructose which hits your liver is a real shock to your system. It is left to the liver to deal with this sudden input of fructose – which it does by converting it to fat. In contrast, unprocessed foods such as apples, pears and honey contain fructose but in the correct concentration, which nature has designed, for your body to deal with.

There are many causes of obesity but to point a finger at an over-fat person and claim that they are obviously greedy and lazy is too simplistic. Sure, some people eat a lot – but the ubiquitous use of high fructose corn syrup by the food manufacturing industry, which puts profit before health, is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic.

Why then does the Government not control the use of this ingredient? The answer, of course, boils down to money. Why would the Government restrict industries who share their profits with them in exchange for watering down legislation. There are plenty of rules to ensure that food is produced hygienically, to help minimise the risk of food poisoning. There are fewer controls to restrict the use of ingredients which slowly poison our livers, skin, brains and bones. Food politics can weave a tangled web, but the results are clear to see at the 2012 London Olympics. Here the UK Government is keen to promote a sense of health and well being through sport, and yet condones McDonalds, PepsiCo and Cadbury as the major sponsors of the event!

The good news is that it is possible to free you addiction to highly processed, addictive, foods, and to retrain your taste buds. Good quality, locally produced, and seasonal vegetables, fruits, cheese, artisan bread, meat and fish all come with their own natural flavours and pleasure forming chemicals. Regular exercise can also feed our emotions. It generates the same sort of chemical rewards as some junk foods. So, walk to the farmer’s market, feed your taste buds and emotions – and take control of your eating habits.

]]>http://hisbe.co.uk/eating-for-success/feed/1Workforce-dhttp://hisbe.co.uk/forced-labour/
http://hisbe.co.uk/forced-labour/#commentsWed, 30 May 2012 11:17:01 +0000http://www.hisbe.co.uk/?p=2906Last month I had a big rant at Tesco in “We’ve Got Beef” because they were complaining about only making 4 billion pounds in profit in the last year. So reading this report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation it seemed all the more distasteful that the Tesco fat cats were whining about a 1% drop in profits whilst allowing people in their supply chains to be subject to inhumane treatment and conditions.

It’s not just Tesco this time though, it’s about all the big businesses involved in our food industry who don’t do enough to address supply chain issues or ensure that employment agencies aren’t exploiting workers.

At worse the conditions and experiences uncovered in this report amount to forced labour and exploitation, at best it’s more evidence of casually putting profit before people.

When big food businesses put their profits first it means someone, somewhere is paying the price

The report explains that “In food production, conditions are shaped by the competitive pressures that large suppliers and their customers (retailers) place on employers.”

That might be how it is, but we certainly think it’s a long way from how it Should be. It’s not defensible with that lazy excuse of “that’s just business” – nobody should have to suffer, be exploited or abused just so we can buy cheap supermarket ready meals and the like.

hiSbe thinks that the need for a Supermarket watchdog is long overdue. We strongly support the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill and hope an adjudicator will have the power to force retailers to be transparent about how they do business, and will hold them accountable for all their dodgy practices, not least the exploitation of supply chain workers.

Your money keeps businesses going and is an endorsement of their practices

Tesco’s profits have fallen by 1% – the first drop in twenty years, and Philip Clarke, its CEO, has been getting his pretty face in front of the cameras today to publicise his £1bn recovery plan.

He’s also been reassuring us all that Tesco aren’t “struggling” – phew! £4bn in profits can hardly compare to the struggles faced by our independent food stores to stay open and keep fighting their David & Goliath battle with Tesco and the other major supermarkets.

It’s no secret that at hiSbe we’re not the biggest fans of supermarkets, they’ve been sucking the goodness out of our food system for decades, whilst forcing themselves on communities, squeezing producers and farmers, and operating in ways that are so far from our ethos of business “how it Should be” that it makes our blood boil.

But Mr. Clarke tells us he wants to put the “heart and soul back into Tesco”. Which is fantastic news, because at hiSbe we miss the good old days when it was a socially conscious business that cared about its suppliers, producers and farmers, stood for something other than making its major shareholders revoltingly rich, and recognised its responsibility for feeding its customers nutritious, real food produced in nondestructive ways.

Hang on, it’s never been like that; they’ve ALWAYS put their profit before people, animals and the planet, that’s why after almost 40 years of supermarkets our food system is in the state that it is.
So what on earth is this “heart and soul” that they’re putting back? They sold their soul a long time ago, along with their grandmothers – but anything to boost profits, that’s just “business” right?

At the moment Tesco have around 2700 stores in the UK, as Zoe Wood from the Guardian says, it’s these stores that have been the “cash cow” that has made Tesco’s overseas expansion possible – British people’s hard earned cash being used to extend Tesco’s “values” to the rest of the world, wonderful.

But back to the UK – 2700 stores, and more on the way! However, the throwing up of new stores is slowing down – as the Financial Times puts it, Tesco is “reigning in its relentless expansion of physical stores”.
That’s something to be grateful for then, shame it’s in response to falling profits and not as a result of listening to the communities across the UK shouting at them that they’re not wanted.

Yes, they’re only going to open up a third of the new stores that were planned, with most of those being the convenience-sized stores. They’ll also spend some of that £1bn recovery plan money on expanding their “Express” outlets, which is all pretty bleak news for our struggling independent retailers and local economies. As long as Tesco isn’t struggling though, that’s the main thing.

Inititally they will refurbish 430 stores, to “make the UK shopping trip better for customers” – but we just wonder about all the energy, water and resources that will be required to make their stores look “warmer and less-functional”, and how many tonnes of waste will be heading off to landfill afterwards.

High Streets (what’s left of them) can breathe a shallow sigh of relief though; they’ll be no new out-of-town Tesco hypermarkets for now, they’re just going to spruce up the existing ones. Although with Philip Clarke predicting the chain still has “decades of growth” ahead to enjoy, and believing that the demise of the hypermarket is still “a very long way in the future”, our high streets may yet have their last breath squeezed out.

They’re also planning on completely overhauling their own brand food ranges, which represent a staggering 40% of all UK food sales. They’ll use all the clubcard data they collect on customers to tailor their offering to the ethnicity and affluence of people within each store area. Would we be cynical in surmising that this translates to further editing of choice, and providing even lower quality food to poorer neighbourhoods?

Philip Clarke wants to “build trust in our pricing”, but that could only really happen with a fully transparent price system, which would show just how greedy they are, and how little of each pound spent with them reaches the people who are responsible for investing their lives growing and producing our food.

Mr. Clarke finished his interview with this final sentence “The business continues to grow, and continues to deliver for shareholders”. That’s all it’s about really, they don’t care about the customers, they just care about their cash – but your local grocer / butcher / baker / fishmonger knows his customers and values more than their money.

As a shopper you vote with your feet and your wallet – every pound you spend with a retailer is an endorsement, a big thumbs up to the way they do business and a powerful demand for more of the same. Make sure you’re voting for business how it Should be.

Love Food Hate Waste know the score and have lots of practical ideas to help.

People hate to waste food, but the problem is we do it without thinking. Somewhere along the line we stopped treating food like it’s precious and started thinking of it as disposable. Nowadays, throwing away food is a part of everyday life, despite the fact that it’s pushing up the price of food and has knock-on costs for the environment, producers and society.

“Food poverty” is one of the most disturbing symptoms of our broken food system. In Britain, the 6th richest country in the world, millions of children go hungry because people do not have enough money to buy food. Richard Corrigan explains this problem in his documentary, “On Hunger,” where he meets British families affected by food poverty. This 30 second introduction to his programme is a bite-sized look at the facts.

In the programme, Richard highlights the work of the FareShare organisation, which is a very positive example of people coming together to implement practical solutions to the issues of food waste and food poverty. Like FoodCycle and Food AWARE, FareShare takes surplus food that supermarkets throw away and makes it into great meals for people in need.

At hiSbe we think it’s time for retailers to take responsibility for the part they play in food waste and food poverty. That’s why End Waste is one of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices.We think supermarkets are a key driver of our throwaway food culture and they need to step up and start being part of the solution, not the problem.

Disappointingly, the big four supermarkets just don’t seem to get it. This report from Channel 4 captures the problem… supermarkets seem to be saying, “it’s not our fault, it’s our customers’ fault.” At a time when we need positive, practical help for our food waste problem, are supermarkets just a waste of space?

Since the 1960’s our food system has been made ever-more industrialised, mass-produced and globalised by politics and powerful companies. There’s been a shift from farm-yards to factory-lines as the major supermarkets and big food companies have consistently pushed farmers to make more food, more cheaply and more quickly…

Nevertheless, British farming today remains a significant body and, nationally, there are more than 300,000 active farms in Britain, employing a workforce of more than 526,000 people, taking care of the countryside and still contributing 60% of the food that we eat.

At hiSbe, we champion British farmers because eating locally produced and seasonal fresh food is an important part of building a fairer and more sustainable food system… that’s why we love positive projects like Thanks To Farmers!

To cries of “Fuel Britannia!“, six students from Plymouth University are running this campaign to get recognition for Britain’s hardworking farmers, to show people what farmers do for us – and simply to say, “thanks.”

Team leader Rufus explains that, “What originally started as a project for an enterprise challenge has grown into a fully blown, funded and heartfelt campaign to get farmers and their invaluable work noticed. Farmers work incredibly long hours, sometimes for very little reward or thanks, but without them the country simply wouldn’t function. We want to reintroduce the importance of farming to the British community, encouraging the public to appreciate the hard work that goes into fuelling Britain.”

So why not leave your thanks on their website, www.thankstofarmers.org and spread the word? It only takes a few seconds and the more voices they have, the louder the impact they can make!

To borrow a phrase from folk at Flavrbox, it’s all about “shaking the hand that feeds you!”

For further ways to show your support for British farmers, see our Must Be British campaign. We launched this last year with our partner Growing Direct to spread support for British-grown food during the Olympics.

]]>http://hisbe.co.uk/thanks-to-farmers/feed/0A very British Olympics?http://hisbe.co.uk/food-vision-olympics-2012/
http://hisbe.co.uk/food-vision-olympics-2012/#commentsMon, 13 Feb 2012 09:00:54 +0000http://www.hisbe.co.uk/?p=2663At hiSbe we’ve had Olympics fever for a while… Yes, we like a bit of sport and love the positive spirit of the Games – but just think of all that FOOD!

It’s estimated that we’ll be serving 14 million meals to all the visitors attending the 2012 Olympics venues and, on top of that, millions more Brits will be out and about watching the Games over the Summer and eating in pubs, cafes and restaurants all over the country. What an amazing opportunity to showcase British food and farming and give a great big boost to the food that’s grown and reared here.

For advocates of “how it Should be” in food and farming, the 2012 Olympics is also a high profile platform to highlight the relationship between physical fitness and healthy food and show that ethical standards are important in food.

So in December 2009, LOCOG set out a detailed Food Vision, saying “Our vision aims to seize the opportunity to use the transformational power of the Games to celebrate and promote the variety and quality of British regional food.”

It says that all dairy products, beef, lamb and poultry must be British and certified by the Red Tractor scheme.

Some people are asking “what about McDonalds?”

The hope was that McDonalds, THE official food sponsor of the 2012 Olympic Games, would step up and commit to these food standards and set the example for all the other food service businesses, big and small, that will be serving up British grown food to the public.

With McDonalds expected to serve one on five of all meals to visitors at the 2012 Olympic Games it seems that corporate muscle and the drive to put profit before people may trump the British Food Vision…

At hiSbe we are showing our support for British food and farming with the Must Be British campaign, which aims to spread the word to cafes, pubs and restaurants everywhere to serve up British-grown food during the 2012 British Olympics… after all, isn’t that just how it Should be?

]]>http://hisbe.co.uk/food-vision-olympics-2012/feed/0Who are the Number One Wasters?http://hisbe.co.uk/food-waste-defra/
http://hisbe.co.uk/food-waste-defra/#commentsWed, 25 Jan 2012 11:34:52 +0000http://test.chriskenworthy.co.uk/hisbe/?p=1982Most of us feel bad when we bin food, so it’s pretty shocking how much we do it!

Well, whilst the EU Parliament is pushing for practical solutions to reduce food waste, through awareness campaigns and policy changes, we can all do our bit.

That’s why End Waste is one of the hiSbe 8 Everyday Choices. It’s about being aware and thinking through how we buy, store and cook food, so that we don’t bin so much.

A great first step is to visit the Love Food, Hate Waste website. They have lots of clear, practical tips for cutting down on food waste. In the end a little awareness will save a lot of food and money.

]]>http://hisbe.co.uk/food-waste-defra/feed/0Time for a Big Freeze?http://hisbe.co.uk/gm-gmo-wheat/
http://hisbe.co.uk/gm-gmo-wheat/#commentsTue, 17 Jan 2012 11:27:16 +0000http://test.chriskenworthy.co.uk/hisbe/?p=1976The use of genetic engineering into our food is a hot topic! For hiSbe, the issue is not the science itself, it’s about how it’s being used…

It’s crucial to explore innovative ways to feed people healthily and protect the planet at the same time. However, to date, the genetic modification of plants and animals for food has not been approached in this way, because GM technology is in the hands of big chemical companies developing it purely for profit.

They are making and patenting new types of products, like GM corn, GM potatoes and GM wheat and pushing them out into the food supply chain all over the world with little understanding of the impact on people’s health, the land and the environment.

He says, “The point of GM is not to increase food security but to make a few rich companies richer and give them even more control. Governments like this because visible money is called GDP, which can be called “economic growth”….”

Yet all over Europe the general public and many businesses, environmental groups and charity organisations are firmly against GM! The question is, what can we do about it? Well, we like the approach of GM Freeze.

The new genetically modified wheat will emit a chemical intended to keep aphids (greenflies, black-flies and whiteflies) off the crop. There is no market for this product. There is no demand for this product. It has not been tested for human consumption and has no benefit for consumers. It does a job that can already be done with natural methods using aphid predators, like ladybirds. And yet, there’s a high risk that the GM wheat will cross-pollinate with nearby wheat crops and grasses, contaminate them and spread unchecked.

It’s easy to add your voice to this campaign. We can all help build a food system that feeds people healthily and sustainably in ways that care for the land, instead of harming it. That’s why Protect Nature is one of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices.

]]>http://hisbe.co.uk/gm-gmo-wheat/feed/1Nice one Lumley!http://hisbe.co.uk/live-animal-exports/
http://hisbe.co.uk/live-animal-exports/#commentsMon, 09 Jan 2012 11:23:44 +0000http://test.chriskenworthy.co.uk/hisbe/?p=1973We Brits pride ourselves on being a nation of animal lovers and, as Joanna Lumley says in this video, “people hate to see animals suffering.” But often we are just not aware of how animals are treated and what we can do about it.

This is why Joanna is speaking up against the cruel practise of transporting UK animals live over hundreds or thousands of miles, to be fattened or slaughtered outside this country. This might sound like a bizarre practise, because common sense tells us that animals should be fattened and slaughtered as near as possible to home, but unfortunately it’s now common to transport live calves, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and horses around the world by road, rail, sea or air. In Europe, around six million farm animals are transported across different countries with some journeys taking three days or more.

Live animal transportation happens because supermarkets and big companies making meat products demand ever-cheaper meat in ever-bigger quantities. This puts enormous pressure on farmers and producers to find ways to raise and process the animals and still make a fair living out of it themselves. Transporting animals in large quantities to big slaughter houses or factory farms simply saves money… It’s part of a system that puts profit before quality and doing what’s right and there are many knock-on costs to people and the environment, but of course it’s the animals themselves that bear the biggest brunt of the hidden cost.

Right now, British animals are being exported through the port of Ramsgate in Kent and Compassion in World Farming is helping to end this trade, with Joanna’s help.

Everyone who eats meat can make conditions better for farmed animals. As Joanna says, it starts with thinking for a minute about those little furry faces in the transport trucks. It’s about supporting the work of people like CIWF, paying a fair price for meat and eating better quality meat a bit less often. Our voices count and our choices count! – and that’s why Think Welfare is one of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices.